


Escape Pod

by thisisallajoke



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Eventual Loki/Tony Stark, Fix-It, Gen, Genderfluid Loki (Marvel), IN SPACE!, Jotunn Loki (Marvel), Lady Loki, Loki gets a space ship, Loki works through his feelings, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Space Pirates, bend around the wind, sort of inspired by
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-02-15 22:02:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18678214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisisallajoke/pseuds/thisisallajoke
Summary: After Loki escapes the wreckage of the Asgardian refugee ship he must survive on his own, but when half the people around him turn to dust he scowers the galaxy to find the bastard that did it and kill him.





	1. Chapter 1

A large hand constricts his neck. His face turns a deep shade of purple, one that’s too close to deep blue. Bulging, red eyes begin to water as the body they’re a part of begins to lose oxygen.

The hand tightens. Small tremors run down his slowly suffocating body until he finally stills and is discarded onto the floor. A body clothed in a rumpled heap of green and black leather is all that remains of the god.

Watching himself die is by far the most surreal thing Loki has ever done.

He ducks back behind the storage crate where he was hiding before he sent his duplicate out. His own throat constricts—he can’t tell if it’s out of sympathy or out of fear. In a matter of minutes he had gone from a lounging prince to a pathetic coward. It took all his willpower to not throw caution to the wind and charge at those murderers. Luckily, quickly formulating a plan was one of his specialties. His best option right now is to stay put and hope that they leave.

Loki doesn’t dare move until The Mad Titan and his _children_ are gone. He can hear commotion going on from the other side of the crate but it’s drowned out by the methodic thrumming in his ears while his shaking hands pull his attention away from the tussle. He has to focus. Right now, losing concentration can mean losing his life, and that’s not something he’s willing to give up anymore.

He pushes all distractions from his mind and wills the fabricated Loki to stay corporal. Conjuring illusions is a simple task but creating an entire living, breathing being that’s real enough to fool The Mad Titan can be rather draining—not to mention that he has an imminent threat of strangulation hanging over him that he has to worry about.

Minutes go by but they feel like days. Loki’s legs slowly start to go numb from his crouched position, but moving them the slightest bit could alert The Mad Titan and his minions to his location. The feeling in his legs isn’t important right now. He knows concentrating on masking his magical signature is more important.

Finally he feels the suffocating presence of The Mad Titan fade away followed by his three minions. The feeling of The Maw is the last to go and Loki finally takes a shuddering breath. And then a second breath.

And a third. It does nothing to calm him.

On shaky legs, Loki rises to his full height but the ground pulsates and sways beneath him. He should be putting his magic to healing his body and mind but he won’t take the chance of alerting The Maw of his presence by dispelling his duplicate or the shroud around his magic. He closes his eyes in hopes to block out his dizziness and the oncoming headache. Overstrain tends to have that sort of effect.

If Loki thought getting up was hard, he was nowhere near prepared for walking.

It takes Loki a full minute to steady himself; to creep out from behind the large crate and into the main atrium where the attack happened. He can finally take in the full extent of the destruction of the ship. Blue and purple chemical fires overtake the wiring and water pipes that have burst from the walls. Somehow, it’s not as bad as he imagined. Sure, nowhere near safe, but definitely not as bad.

That’s when he sees two familiar green eyes staring at him lifelessly. He strangely feels nothing. Perhaps the initial shock of witnessing his own death numbed him to the other horrors on the ship. But something in that moment feels off. An intrusive thought clouds his mind. _Where is Thor?_

Even more musings fill his mind as another wave of panic threatens to suffocate him again. He pushes his panic aside to deal with later. Thor must have escaped while the Mad Titan was distracted—Loki can’t worry about Thor right now. Escape is his first priority.

Loki turns his back on the Asgardians strewn about the floor, finally bringing some sense back to his mind. He takes a succinct breath and walks down the hallway with purpose.

Presumably, all the escape pods are gone. The loading dock should have a few cargo ships but Loki knows they haven’t been turned on the entire time they’ve been in space. All he can do is hope they work.

The path to the loading dock is dangerous to traverse. Sparks and fires burn around him in the corridor as the walls begin to cave. His thoughts drift as he walks. This dreadful ship; Loki could have designed one in half the time of this one's engineers and it would still maintain its structural integrity.

A fallen beam completely cuts off the direct path to the dock. He’s pulled back to the problem at hand. Loki could try to lift it with magic but even attempting to call on more of his magic sends an ice shard through his temple.

After a hazardous walk through the underbelly of the ship, Loki circumvents the particularly mangled parts of the main corridors. It takes him much longer than he hoped but he finally arrives on the floor of the cavernous dock.

Among the crackling of distant fires, Loki hears a hiss emanating from a wall that separates the inside from empty space. That’s not good if he’s planning on staying here a while. He should get to work on accessing one of the cargo ships as soon as possible before the air in the room all leaks out.

He walks across the large room, maybe half the size of the Asgardian throne room, and stops at the first ship he sees. It’s boxy, large—maybe built to hold twenty crew members—and coated in an ugly brown paint. It maybe not be the most attractive or efficient ships he’s seen, but Loki thinks it’ll have to do. That is until he rounds to its entrance and sees a metal beam plunged into its right wing.

Damn it.

Running to the next ship, almost identical in style just slightly smaller, Loki begins a more thorough inspection this time. From what he can tell, this ship checks out.

He manually opens the hatch on the back of the ship and feels a rush of air escape the smaller ship. The air pressure in the dock must be getting pretty low. Quickly pressing a button once he’s inside the cargo ship, Loki is finally able to take a deep breath with some semblance of safety. His head finally escapes its foggy state. Perhaps it was just the lack of air that made his head pound.

He navigates his way through the ship till he finds himself in what one might call the bridge...or the cockpit. Loki mulls the distinction over in his brain for a bit before settling on bridge only for the reason that it sound more professional; more in command

Striding over to a module along the wall, Loki begins to sift through the information in the terminal to see if he can get the ship started. He’ll feel better once he’s away from this terrible ship.

Deciphering the foreign language isn’t hard. He’s had months traveling through space to familiarize himself with its nuanced grammar and the Allspeak translates the denotative meanings.

After a brief peruse through the menus and a few clicks to the interface, the bridge whirs to life. Artificial white light sends a knife straight behind Loki’s eyes. He squeezes his eyes shut. The light is a stark contrast to the dim blue fires and red emergency lights in the Asgardian ship.

He walks back the the center of the bridge where a set of knobs and joysticks are flanked by a chair. Sitting down, he pilots the spacecraft to a hovering position. The controls were intuitive enough, not that it was hard for him to figure out. At least the manufacturers of all these ships weren’t completely incompetent.

Loki stops. How will he get out of the loading dock without access to the bay doors? Damn this ship. If it weren’t for the faulty infrastructure and that damn leak maybe he could have…

The leak.

Gods bless this awful ship.

Loki gets right to work using the scanners in his cargo ship to search for where the leak is. After no time at all he drives headstrong towards the crack in the hull. Like his duplicate, it crumples. This thought almost threatens to send him into a full blown panic, but he quells the feeling and it only results in a slightly quickened pulse.

How they survived in this ship for so long baffles Loki.

He’s afforded a moment of calm where he can sit back. Stars stretch out into an inky blackness. As Loki guides the ship away from the wreckage, a beep alerts him to objects in his ship’s trajectory. He realizes the odd blotches of black in his view aren’t that odd at all. Silhouettes of debris and bodies litter the space around his ship. He can’t help but feel a pang of shame from seeing all those people. He wills himself from thinking about the possibility that Thor could be out there.

But this moment of mortified serenity jerks to a stop.

Alarm sounds and an intrusive red light flood the bridge. Dread fills him like water in his lungs. Loki quickly makes his way the terminal with a blinking message.

Low fuel tanks.

Maybe this ship wasn’t such a godsend after all.

He should have thought to check the fuel reserves before he jumped to get on this ship. His misjudgment will surely cost him his life. Serves him right, just when he was about to get it back.

Nearly manically, Loki scrambles to find a menu that will allow him to divert all the power to engines and life support. The best he can do is shut off the alarms. He slams a fist into the console.

With relative peace restored, he resigns himself to the command chair. Adrenaline still pumps through his veins but he’s too tired to care. He exhausted, in fact. Pulling his feet up onto the chair with him, he wraps his arms around his shins and rests his head on his knees.

He begins to drift to sleep as the ship drifts through space.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki meets some people he’ll probably never see again.

“Entering planetary atmosphere,” says a robotic woman who’s accompanied by frantic beeping.

In an instant, Loki is awake. To say that he’s surprised that he’s still alive would be an understatement. He shoots to his feet and is immediately on top of the pilot’s console.

“Entering planetary atmosphere,” repeats the voice of the ship.

He tries pulling up, but the lack of fuel makes that action hard to follow through with. If only he could steer the ship with sheer determination alone. Unfortunately he can’t, and the planet's surface gets closer and closer as he tries to get a handle on the ship.

As the ship breaches the clouds, Loki sees a red-orange expanse. A barren desert similar to the one Thor was first sent to on Midgard. He notices distinct similarities as more of the surface passes under his ship. This wasteland isn’t so barren after all. First a few settlements came into Loki’s view, but larger, busier ones appeared until he found himself plummeting towards a shining metropolis.

 _This is good_ , Loki thinks. At least there’ll be other people that might be able to help him off this planet. That’s his thought until it dawns on him that he may not _need_ help off the planet if he’s smashed head first into a bunch of dunes or someone’s office building.

What a way to go.

Loki is pulled from his introspection with a different voice that says, “Slow down your descent. Your vehicle is unauthorized for entry to _Skrull New Arago_.”

It’s not like the mechanical, even-toned voice that belongs to his ship. It’s alive. Alien, but still, alive.

Loki searches for a communication button to respond to the person on the other ship. He flips through more menus for a bit until he finds the button and lets out a relieved sigh. He’s just about to send a message back when the voice rings through his ship’s intercom again.

“Attention. If you do not slow down your descent, you will be received as hostile.”

Breathing through his teeth, Loki hurriedly presses the button to allow him to talk back.

“That’s going to be a bit difficult considering this ship has been running off of fumes for hours,” Loki hisses.

His voice is rough from disuse. Gods know how long he's been on this ship. It feels like weeks even though it couldn’t have been more than two days.

The other ship stays silent as his voice lingers in the air. All the while the crimson ground has been getting closer to him. He’s about thirty second from impact. Surely, the red from his body will blend in with the red of the sand. _Maybe_ , he thinks, _I should have been more polite_. It sure wouldn’t be the first time a deviance from his usual collected manner had screwed him over.

But before he can think any farther, Loki feels a jerk in his ship. He’s thrown forward and stumbles on top of the console in front of him. A groan of metal on metal echoes through the hull of his ship.

Sounding off another time, the voice huffs. “I’m dropping you off at the nearest dock. You have some serious explaining to do.”

Suddenly he’s not falling anymore.

Loki doesn’t know how. He doesn’t know of many civilizations with magic that’s advanced enough to stop an entire spacecraft. He rules out that option. He does the same for tractor beams. The only one he saw that was powerful enough belongs to the Mad Titan—even thinking about him brings chills to Loki’s skin and causes a knot to form at the pit of his stomach.

The last option is machinery. It’s possible the other ship, which Loki has yet to see, was large enough to grapple his ship and hold its weight. Unlikely, but more probable than the other two options.

Loki’s ship is essentially manhandled into a horizontal position and slowly dragged closer to the bustling city he was tumbling towards just seconds ago. It’s still at a fast pace but not quite as alarming. He doesn’t have to worry about the impact now, only all the other things that could happen on this planet. _Skrull New Arago_ , he reminds himself. Pretty wordy for a planet name.

As he approaches the city, Loki sees other flying ships. It’s still hard to tell if they’re spacecrafts from this distance. At least from the shape of them, they don’t look like military crafts. They’re too boxy to be; to similar to the shape of _his_ ship. That makes the ship currently towing him along less likely to be a truly hostile entity and more likely to simply be a police patrol. Still not the best situation, but Loki takes his blessing where he can get them.

They gradually slow to a crawl until his ship hovers just above a large metal platform protruding from a building. It’s high up.

Very high up.

With an earthquake—or rather a “ship quake”—and a lurch in Loki’s stomach, he is,after so long, on stable ground. The tension he didn’t realize he was holding in his shoulders rolls out of him as he turns around from the window to sit on the console.

Another groan of metal resonates from somewhere in the ship.

Loki sits there for a minute, taking in the sensation of natural gravity when he hears metallic pounding from the direction of the back door followed by muffled order.

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath to bolster himself before pushing off of the console and swiftly walking towards the exit of the ship. He’s lucky his memory is quite a ways above average otherwise he would get lost with only a days familiarity with his ship.

Finally, Loki reaches the cargo hatch that someone is pounding on. He can at last hear what they’re saying through the thick metal doors.

“Come out unarmed or I _will_ shoot,” the stern voice says.

He reaches for the button to release the door and stands on the ramp of the ship, arms crossed. The door hisses open

“Are you quite finished?” Loki asks with a quirk of one eyebrow as a tall, pink woman comes into view.

“I’m finished when you answer my questions for you,” she coolly replies.

Loki tilts his chin, “Very well. What do you want to know?”

She squints her eyes and mirrors his crossed arms.

“Why are you traveling—alone for one—and two, in a spaceship with no fuel in it?”

 _Yes, the hard hitters_ , Loki thinks smugly.

“It’s a rather long story that I don’t care to tell at the moment,” Loki replies. He just slightly raises the corners of his mouth into a smirk, but it is nowhere near friendly.

“Oh, you’re _real_ funny. Listen, I can tell you’re not from around here. Just tell me and I might let you go scott free...if you have a good excuse.”

This agravates Loki more than anything else she has said. To think, he’s being asked to justify himself to a mortal? Ten years ago he could have sent her to prison and never seen her again if she acted like this.

But it isn’t ten years ago. She’s just doing her job, a stupid job indeed, but it’s what she has to do. So Loki does what he has to do and resigns himself to do the responsible thing.

He walks straight towards her, gently pushes his magic onto her mind and says, “I’m allowed to be here.”

Before she can acknowledge the statement, Loki walks away, clicking a button on the ship behind him.

It’s safe to assume that he’ll be on this planet for at least a few days, just to fuel up and acquire commodities for travel. After that though, he doesn’t know where he’ll go. That thought is scary yet strangely electrifying.

He turns a corner on the connected catwalks of the docks and enters a pair of doors on the side of the building.

Inside is a front desk and rows of filing cabinets. At the desk is a giant man, only a little less than twice Loki’s height. He doesn’t seem to notice Loki, too enthralled in the book he’s reading.

Loki approaches the brute and hits his hand hard enough on the wooden top that it makes a noticeable sound. The man behind the desk jumps back frantically letting go of the book.

In a deep, grumbly voice he says “Sorry, can I help you with anything today sir?”

For a moment Loki stares at him, he’s not startled enough to let it show on his face, but surprise has rendered him speechless. The low octave he had expected. What he hadn’t anticipated was the gentle tone the man’s voice had.

The man behind the desk coughs.

“Excuse me, sir, are you all right?”

Loki is startled again back into speech.

“Um, yes. Could you tell me anything about this planet, this dock in particular, I suppose?

The man gives Loki a peculiar look and says “You the guy who just flew in on that Sakaarian cargo ship?”

“Indeed, that is my ship,” Loki replies. “I need a place to keep it while I’m out.”

The man turns around and rustles through papers behind the desk until he pulls out a sheet of paper—comically small in his hands—and begins writing on it.

“Here,” he says handing it out to Loki, “Spaces are 50 credits a night and we have a complimentary repair team if you have the materials. I’ll waive the first payment since you look like you need it.” He finishes with a smile.

Loki takes the receipt from the man and thanks him for his generosity. He leaves through the door he entered and flashes the man a bright, toothy smile. As he turns his head it immediately falls back to the usual uninterested expression he wears.

 _Looks like I’ll have to find work,_ Loki thinks as he saunters off to what he assumes to be he exit to the network of pathways.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank god for lady Loki.

Walking around the city is excruciating. Loki never had the  _ pleasure  _ of being in the Midgardian desert, but he imagines it would feel something like this. He has never felt something so hot. The heat isn’t just something that you can escape with shade; it permeates the air and everything the air comes in contact with. It’s oppressive, creating a sort of heaviness that weighs down on his exposed skin. Sweat used to drip down Loki’s forehead, but he’s been outside so long that all water in his body has all but evaporated. To speak about his experience lightly: it’s gods awful.

For the past hour that he’s been exploring the city, Loki has tried his best to underneath awnings offering shade. It’s uncertain whether his unnaturally cool skin will protect him from the heat or make him more vulnerable to it—he doesn’t care to find out.

There’s also a distinct lack of people walking around despite the city’s size. It makes him wonder where the Hel they could all be. But that doesn’t pose an immediate issue to Loki, so he keeps going down one of the main streets till he finds some sort of social establishment. He needs a bar.  _ It’s just for finding money, _ he tells himself, but that’s only half true. Loki won’t admit that the past two days have taken a terrible toll on him and he wants to drink something as strong as the special Alfheimr ale they had in the Asgardian court.

Loki keeps walking. He’s hot and tired and something else he can’t define, but he keeps walking. He has to.

Finally, he comes up on a small establishment that looks to be open. He swiftly opens the door after a brief look through the window. Nothing too suspect looked like it was going on: maybe some gambling, but Loki’s not exactly complaining about that. 

The door opens with a jangle and a burst of cool air rescues his skin from the heat. He didn’t realize it was so bad until he gets something to compare it to.  _ Perhaps I’ll never go outside again _ , he thinks with a satisfied smirk.

From behind the bar, a woman harps, “in or out, you’re letting the cool air outside.”

Loki quickly responds and shuts the door behind him, giving another cursory glance around the bar.

There’s not many people. A few groups of aliens sit around tables in the back of the tavern. They’re quiet; they don’t look up to watch him enter but nevertheless he can still feel eyes bore into him. 

Loki glides over to the woman at the bar—bright pink and pointy-eared like the guard from earlier—and flashes her his most diplomatic smiles. 

“You new around here?” She asks in a tone that’s reflects she already knows the answer to her question. “I see new faces like you around here everyday, they’re not too easy to notice—I got practice,” she assures Loki, as if he would be scared of her knowing that.

Loki drops his smile to a soft smirk, still keeping his friendly facade. 

“I’m afraid so,” he replies. “I’m looking for work and board at the moment, but right now I could just use a good drink.”

“Our strongest, coming right up!” She says proudly as Loki deftly conjures the money he’s seen people in this city use. He would do this all the time, if he was a less intelligent man. Right now is okay, but if he has to stay here for a prolonged amount of time, people he’s swindled might get smart of his actual lack of payment. He can’t risk being exposed to anyone, even if he does it to himself on accident. The heavy, metal coins fall with a clank into her hand as she slides over a drink to him.

Loki sips on his glass for a few minutes while the bartender goes to the other people in the establishment and makes conversation. He still feels eyes on him and it makes his skin crawl with goosebumps. But despite that, he continues to be nonchalant.

The woman tending the bar—he learns from eavesdropping that her name is Chandara—finishes her rounds and approaches him. He pretends not to notice her get closer when she clears her throat to get his attention.

“If you’re looking for something to do with decent pay, I could point you in the right direction. It could get dangerous though, so I need to know if you’re willing to do that before I tell you the details.”

“What kind of dangerous?” Loki says as he tilts his head in curiosity. He’s already steadfast that he’ll accept the job no matter what, but it couldn’t hurt to know information beforehand.

“I see a lot of people go through this place. Eventually you get good at reading who they are even if you don’t really know them. I can tell it’s probably the kind of dangerous you’re used to.”

Loki looks at her with wide, startled eyes. He hadn’t expected this kind of insight in a mortal. Either she is very good at reading people, or he is very bad at masking who he is. He relaxes as he convinces himself it’s probably the former.

After a few beats of silence he replies and raises an eyebrow. “You seem to know me well. I’ll accept your proposal.”

She looks like she noticed his internal dilemma, but Loki is grateful she doesn’t say anything. Maybe the inhabitants aren’t as bad as the planet itself.

Chandara pulls a sheet of paper from underneath the bars surface and scribbles an address on it before sliding it over to him with a smirk. Then she puts on an air of somber.

“Don’t come for me when you get hurt or anything. I warned you.”

“I would never dream of it,” Loki assures.

Loki pushes up from his seat and turns to leave the tavern. Peculiarly, it seems a great deal more occupied than when he first sauntered in.  _ It must be the evening crowd _ , he thinks as he reaches the door. The sun has already begun to set from what he can tell through the blinds in the windows.

It jingles when he exits, but that is nothing compared to the noise he now hears outside of the building. This shining metropolis truly is a shining metropolis now. Hovering vehicles fly between buildings, people walk the streets, and the dock he arrived at is packed with traveling people. The contrast this city has to during the day is astounding.

The second thing Loki notices is the coolness that meets his skin when he closes the door behind him. It’s like a gentle caress compared to the oppressive heat from his earlier stroll. Every time a ship whisks past him, a breath of cool air follows quickly behind. 

It’s almost pleasant.

Almost. Loki is reminded that he needs to get off this planet when he feels a presence hovering over his shoulder. He whips around to face it, but there’s nothing there. The same feeling of uneasiness he had at the bar overtakes his body; he starts to suspect that someone must be watching him.

This probably wasn’t the best train of thought to follow while trapped on an alien planet because it sends Loki into another small panic. He deftly ignores the feeling though and continues down the street, momentarily glancing up to check if his directions are correct. 

He passes by endless streets in an attempt to confuse his tracker. He’s sure that this tactic will work...or it will make him look like a lost, blithering idiot. 

The sun is down completely now and bright light are now illuminated from various buildings. The city has come to life. Diverse being occupy the city now—all shapes and sizes and definitely more than the green people and pink people he had previously seen. This is Loki’s solace. Shadowy and crowded are perfect conditions to lose a tail. However, he can still feel the presence of someone trailing him. He’s already ruled out that they’re hostile. After this much familiarizing, he would be able to tell that. But Loki still doesn’t like the idea of anyone knowing more of his business than he allows them, and this predicament sure is the exact opposite of what he hopes for right now.

If Loki is going to be stalked, he might as well use his whole skill set to escape. This person will find out eventually if they decide to be this adamant about following him.

Loki swiftly ducks into an alleyway and behind some kind of trash receptacle that hides him from view. He looks around to see if anyone is watching and decides to cast a quick cloaking spell for good measure. In a final attempt to shake his tracker, Loki immerses his body in a soft green light—it’s barely visible, drowned by the brighter lights of the rest of the city. 

The light begins to dissipate and as Loki’s features begin to be visible, they’ve subtly changed. A once pointy jaw is now softer—cheeks the slightest bit rounder. Everything went through a shift. Everything except her mischievous smirk.

Loki hasn’t done this in quite a while, maybe even before The Mad Titan got a hold of her. It feels almost foreign to be in this form after such a long time. She must admit, though, it does feel great to show this side of her to the world—even if it’s something she wanted to hide in Asgard.

Her pleased demeanor dissolves when she remembers what she really did this for, replaced with an antsy feeling in her gut. She better get moving quickly or whoever is tracking might notice something is up.

Loki turns around to leave the alley and collides with one of the pink aliens with pointy ears. She’s shocked into silence but he begins speaking.

“Hey, I can do that too!”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who’s this dude? I swear he’s no one you’ll recognize.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Loki stammers out as she tilts her chin towards the man. She knows she’s already made a mistake out of panic. Even an infant could tell a liar if they had denied something as quick as she just had. It’s too late to back track on her stance now, though. She has to stand her ground even if it is flimsy ground at best.

“That shift,” the man replies, pulling Loki from her train of thought. “You know…” he trails off and resorts to waving his hands around in the air in a vague motion.

“I’m certain that I  _ don’t _ know.”

Loki shoulders past the man and strides back down the street at a brisk pace. She thinks she’s free until she hears footsteps running to catch up to her on the pavement. They’re difficult to pick out in the busy street, but she stands and waits for them to catch up anyway. Passers by weave around her and the crowd parts like a river around a stone. It’s a much more polite crowd than the ones on the busy parts of Asgard. They would end up trampling anyone who so much as stopped for a moment. In comparison, this city’s people are much friendlier, or at least less outwardly abrasive. She felt like Asgard was one of the less civilized realms despite its grandeur. Now she barely knows if there are any Asgardians left. 

Clearing her thoughts with a quick spin, Loki turns to look the man who is now right behind her, heaving with his hands on his knees. One might have thought he had just gone through a deadly battle, but alas…

“What do you want?” Loki spits. She steels her face into a stern expression.

Through gasps he replies, “I just want to know,” he takes a few more deep breaths and then places his hands on his hips, “who you are.”

“Well you’ve seen me now, and I have someplace to be, so run off.” Loki does a shooing motion with her hand and turns back in the direction she was going. Not too long after, the now recognizable footsteps start up behind her again. She takes a deep breath and runs her hands through her hair. This is almost as bad as Thor’s persistence. A pang of guilt hits Loki but she ignores it again; she can’t...do that right now. She can’t afford to.  _ At least not with this nuisance following me, _ she thinks with a huff.

“If you must follow me, at least be useful and show me where this place is,” Loki says as she flashes the crumpled piece of paper. He snatches it from Loki before examining and promptly pocketing it. Without a beat he whisks off into the crowd, only turning around once he notices Loki isn’t following him.

“Right this way, madam.”

Loki furrows her eyebrows as the man does a ridiculous bow and twirls back around. Loki follows behind at a hurried pace. This man—this very immature and annoying man—walks surprisingly fast, especially given his height. After a while, she’s only following a bobbing head about ten feet in front of her. The bustling crowd doesn’t make this task any easier. She wants to call out to him and tell him to wait, but she realizes that she never asked for his name.  _ That’s unfortunate, _ she tells herself.

 

After what feels like only a few minutes of walking, though it had to have been longer, Loki catches up with the man. 

Without looking at him, Loki asks, “So, do you plan on being a guide through this whole city?” 

She side eyes him as he replies.

“If that’s what you want,” he replies with a shrug as if this was nothing.

This stranger knows Loki’s second biggest secret and he has the audacity to act like it’s no big deal, like it isn’t a serious danger to Loki. Anger swells in her chest, an icy feeling bubbling from her core. This anger is a familiar feeling; much more welcome than the constant state of fear she’s been in the past few days. The need to correct him, she jerks towards his direction and glares into his eyes.

“Let’s get this clear,” she hisses, “I don’t want you here. I don’t want any of this! I thought I was done with all of this  _ shit _ , yet I still find myself on some blasted planet trying to scrape by with my head still attached.”

The stranger’s eyes widen as Loki keeps talking. She’s satisfied with his fear. He deserves it. Something quiet within her, however, feels hurt that he retreats from her. She knows she shouldn’t expect anything else, though. Relishing in the man’s reaction, Loki continues.

“I don’t even  _ need _ you, but if you insist on being an obnoxious, irritating pest, then you may as well be of some use to me!”

Loki ends encroached into the strangers space and realizes her breath is shaking. He still looks scared, approaching terrified, but he stil stands his ground for Loki’s final blow. She can’t help but be reminded of Thor. He was bold like this man and he didn’t back down. Suddenly, Loki’s stance softens. Her anger quickly recedes and is replaced with more overwhelming guilt. She can’t handle any more of this today, so she keeps ignoring it.

Her voice instantly much softer, Loki says, “I’m sorry, that was unbecoming of me.” 

The small crowd that had stopped to gawk at the altercation begins to dissipate as they realize there won’t be any real fighting tonight. Loki opens her mouth again to say something else, but decides otherwise once she sees the man’s face. His mouth pulls into a frown and he almost looks apologetic.  _ That won’t do _ , Loki thinks, but she doesn’t have it in her to get mad at him again, so instead she avoids eye contact at all costs. 

She’s examining an  _ incredibly  _ interesting bug flying about a foot above the crowd when the stranger places a hand on Loki’s shoulder. She resists the urge to shrug it off. Now that she’s looking at him, though, he’s wearing a friendly smile. However, his eyes still show a hint of sadness—it’s obvious to Loki.

“Why don’t we move past this? You still need to get where you’re going.” He says as he bounds down the packed street.

Loki gawks at him in disbelief.

“Wait!” She yells after him, “What’s your name?”

Loki hesitates for a moment as he turns back to look at her, now beaming.

“If you’re...planning on staying in the area, of course,” Loki says sheepishly.

“If  _ you’re  _ planning on staying in the area,” he replies, “it’s Remmy.”

Suddenly he jumps into action.

“Wait, wait, wait! I had a point to this. Follow me,” Remmy commands, though it isn’t a command Loki would follow if she wasn’t curious.

Loki is confident she can protect herself, and the people she’s going to try to work for are expecting her. She might as well indulge herself for a moment. As Remmy goes headfirst into the crowd, Loki silently trails behind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remmy isn’t his actual name. I have it written down somewhere but I’m currently very very far from where it is written down.

**Author's Note:**

> No notes right now. Updates may be slow cause I’ve got a lot of stuff going on right now.


End file.
